Since going full-time with narration, I’ve worked on a number of audiobook projects. The first of those finished products has released!
Shoulder Fairy, by Jimm Grogan, is my first foray into hard science fiction. This short tale involves space travel, contact with alien species, and the difficulties of interspecies relations and commerce. The main character is an Earth-born merchant and teacher, come to sell education to the natives of a far-off world. Things get pretty hairy.
I would recommend this book to those who like speculative science-fiction, especially if they like to ponder the science of it. The story also has a good mix of political intrigue, precarious action, and what I’d call economic effect. Rarely have I read books that focus on the tangible changes in society that the characters bring about, but when I do find a read like that, it’s very satisfying to follow along.
The heart of the story is something I can’t talk about without spoiling too much, but the Shoulder Fairy itself is one of the most unique and compelling aspects of the story.
With that, I’ll leave any readers with an Audible link and the official blurb for the story.
A remote world. An unorthodox mission. A strange companion.
After traveling in stasis for years across the interstellar void, Robert Vasquez lands on the planet Sonik orbiting the Procyon star system. His personal mission is to educate the natives of what some consider a backwater world. In this pursuit, he soon runs afoul of the local human ambassador Garth Knight, who wants to keep the natives ignorant—and easier to subjugate.
Robert recruits several natives to his cause, but some oppose him, including a large band of renegades bent on galactic conquest. They harbor secrets about Sonik beyond the knowledge of most other natives. Yet, Robert has learned even deeper secrets buried in the planet’s ancient archives. In the process, he also acquires unusual companions among the native fairies and tarlocks.
How far will Robert bend the rules to succeed on his mission? Can education and technology triumph over bureaucracy and imperialism?
Kyle Adams 